Google Plus is built on its GMail base. Thus, they’re trying to actively market their email through these ‘email intervention’ ads above. I got one (in my GMail, oddly enough) and I found it just annoying. Though, like any advertising, it will have some results. Even Spam and that Nigerian stuff works some of the time. What I didn’t realize was that Microsoft had fired a salvo back, via the Office 365 video below. Ironically, it’s hosted on YouTube, owned by Google.

Janith Leanage is on stage alternately demoing and exposing bugs in his bus route app. I know a lot of these guys from online but it’s different when you actually meat. I mean meet. The room does have that warm hacker smell. As Janith closes, he reiterates that the project is open source and invites everyone to contribute. He say something like, ‘I think it’s something we can all be proud of as Sri Lankans’. I smile. I’m quite happy to be alive.

The Tamil National Alliance is sorta Tamil nationalist, as the name would suggest. Even they, however, seem willing to accept a united Sri Lanka, and to work towards resolution of Tamil issues within a Sri Lankan context. After the election Niran Ankatelle said that the TNA campaigned on the war crimes issue, on bringing foreign intervention against the central government. I read the statement Mr. R. Sampanthan made before and heard reports about after, and I don’t think that’s what he said. As far as I can tell, he’s speaking in unifying language like me and, I think, the Sri Lankan mainstream.

One of my friends casually mentioned that his first sexual encounter was with a village monk, behind a Buddha statue. I was like WTF? And he was like, ‘well, I was young and he gave me money for movie tickets’. That didn’t really answer my question, but it makes its own sick sense. Buddhist monks do have power and, paradoxically, money within the communities, and with that comes sex, almost guaranteed.

In an amazing event, 25,000 Sri Lankans (and others) have walked from the absolute south of the island to the absolute north, raising money for a cancer hospital in Jaffna. When they passed through Colombo, we bought a brick with the kids name on it. Yesterday, Mahela Jayawardena laid the foundation stone. Today I’m very proud of all of them, and proud to be Sri Lankan.

Rick Westhead wrote ‘Why India Can’t Feed Her People‘ in the Toronto Star. This infographic is based on his data. It shows how weak agriculture, governance, and infrastructure are combining to deliver less food per Indian than 30 years ago.

Happy Meals are evil. In America they’re going to start serving apples within, but A) they’ll continue exploiting emerging markets and B) it’s not enough. Every time we drive past McDonald’s, the kid begs to go and insists on at least slowing down to see what toy they have. But he’s a kid. Yesterday I saw him leave an ice cube on the rug, come back and pop it in his mouth. I mean, why, it’s not even food. No one should be marketing anything to this person.

The Mayor of Kaduwela is on Twitter, and now he’s taking on Wimal Weerawansa in the mainstream media. He’s SLFP (government party), but so far I think he’s cool. Wimal, if you don’t know, is Mahinda’s big dog, top vote-getter in Colombo and general purveyor of viciousness and division. Hard core.

Guru’s written a post on Sri Lankan identity on Groundviews. This is the comment I posted below. Let’s agree that Indi Samarajiva is a racist with equal disdain for elephants, Tamils and cars. Really? I think you get the broader point. My point is that Sri Lankan unity (from the people) is the way out of our problems. I think this message of unity is echoed by Kumar Sangakkara and the like.

So, the Gods are in the break room. Indra (the CEO) and this other God, let’s call him Demi. Indra is like, “so how long you been doing weather?” Demi stops to think about it. “Aeons?” he said. Indra nods and takes a banana. Demi looks down at his coconut. Seems like he’s been eating the same thing for aeons as well. Indra chews and looks strategic. “They’ve got this traffic thing now, you want to take a shot at that?” Demi shrugs. He pokes around for something sweet. Looks like Ganesh took all the laddu again.